Maroussa studied for her Queen Margaret University degree at one of our partner institutions, Metropolitan College in Athens, Greece.

What attracted you to QMU?
The UK has people from all over the globe so they're open-minded and have extra information about other places in the world, so I thought studying here would be more international.

What did you like best about studying at QMU?
In this course, almost all the classes have a group project which worked well for me because I like to participate in groups, and I like working with people. The teachers made sure to find a group that is the best fit for everyone. I made some good friends from working in the groups, and I think they have helped me to open my mind. For example, in the HR Management module, we discussed in class about how things operated in other countries. I think this really helped me see different views.

Did you feel like you could get extra support from the staff and teachers when you needed it?
Yes, I felt like I could get help for anything if I needed it. We even had a special department that helped us with a lot of things – like how to write an essay and do bibliographies. Some of the courses were difficult and I had to ask the teachers a lot of questions to get through it - why this, why that - and the teachers helped me a lot. Sometimes when I wasn't available to come into class, I could use the books in the online library, which was really helpful.

So you were studying very hard but did you have the opportunity to do other things too?
I was a part of the Student-Staff Consultative Committee where we got together with staff at the end of the year and talked about the course schedule and the modules and gave our feedback. I have a friend who is in the third year of the program now and we were talking recently about the essays in one of the modules, and I told him that in the first year I had two essays and he said he only had one essay for that course, which he said was helpful because he had more time to gather information and use feedback. I could see that the things we had suggested in the Staff-Student Consultative Committee had been put into practice.
Also, one of the best things for me was that I learned a lot of what I needed to know in the classes so I didn't have to go home and study, study, study all the time. I had more free time than my friends at other institutions to get practical experience. Including volunteering at TedEx and the Make a Wish foundation.

So what plans have you got for the future?

I am working here at the college in the accounting department. I think for right now I’m lucky to have a job doing what I studied and to have the opportunity to develop the skills I’ve learned. There are four people in the department where I work, so almost everything is a bit of a group or team task, and I’m glad to have the experience of working on group projects during my classes.
In the future, I’m thinking that I would like to open a sweet shop. I love sweets. I think this is my dream. I think that it is possible because now I have the knowledge, and I will be able to apply the knowledge that I have to achieve that dream.